Mexico replaces top U.S. diplomats, citing hostile climate

Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto delivers a speech during the 78th anniversary of the expropriation of Mexico’s oil industry in Mexico City, March 18, 2016. REUTERS/EDGARD GARRIDO

Mexico’s government on Tuesday unexpectedly changed two of its top officials responsible for U.S. relations, citing concerns about an increasingly anti-Mexican climate across the border.

Carlos Sada, previously the consul in Los Angeles, was named ambassador to the United States while Paulo Carreno, one of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s communications chiefs, was appointed the deputy foreign minister for North America.

The new ambassador must still be approved by the Senate.

“We have been warning that our citizens have begun to feel a more hostile climate,” Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu told local radio after the announcement.